Monday, March 31, 2008

So, it's the end of March; I've been blogging steadily for two years. Why did I begin? For a bit of an adventure, and to promote my then-hot-off-the-presses anthology of 24 Mexican writers, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. So, like most literary bloggers, I waded in somewhat naively and self-servingly (if promoting an anthology of 24 Mexican writers can be called self-serving... humph... no, I think not. Would somebody please award me the Aztec Eagle now?) Here are the five lessons learned--- thus far:

#1.Blogging isn't necessarily "blogging"By which I mean, a lot of people, especially literary types my age and older, have set ideas about what blogs and the so-called "blogging culture" are--- and they are missing the whole point. It's a literary genre, kindasorta, but it's also a delivery system, the whole Web 2.0 social networking technology-phenomenon--- in sum, we do not yet have the precise vocabulary to describe this. I've told writer friends who resist blogging (with that inevitable oh-so-subtle curl-of-the-lip), if you have a newsletter--- and many do nowadays, as adjuncts to their websites--- you already are "blogging." Just call your newsletter a blog. And if you have some resistance to that, well, then, call your blog a "newsletter." Call it a cupcake, whydoncha! Apropos of which: "To Blog or Not to Blog, That is Not the Question".

#2. Good blogging is more than flogging.I don't read "flog blogs"--- the thud of "me, me, mine," is deadly. The best blogs offer quality writing and quality information--- however quirky a combination (e.g., Phronesisaical's politics, philosophy, international affairs & fruit) or specialized (e.g., Seth Godin's Blog on marketing). (That said, um... why take ads when I can advertise my own books? Yes indeed, look over to right side of this screen for all relevant links.)

#4. Blogging (and balancing blogging with my other writing, and the ever-roaring cascade of e-mails, etc, etc.) requires increasingly advanced time-management skills. As I noted in my recent post, Time to Blog & Read Blogs & Everything Else Everywhereallthetime, apropos of writers' blogs, "...it seems to me that, as artists--- artists who live in this world of unimaginable quantities of information 24/ 7--- we need to develop a set of skills we never knew we needed." I've learned a lot about organization and productivity (two of my gurus are Regina Leeds and David Allen) but I know I have yet to learn more than I can probably imagine--- and this would be true whether I were blogging or not. That said, I rarely watch television or use a cell phone, and I've moved this blog to a more regular (if flexible) schedule: posts on Mondays and in-between more often than not; guest-bloggers generally on Wednesdays.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

This book should be available in Spanish! Despite the title, the text is in English--- and it is so large, so packed with a multitude of maps and four-color photographs, it might be too heavy to lift were it in both languages. No "Baja buff" should be without a copy--- and, seriously, I know what I'm talking about when it comes to books on Baja California. There are a number of books on the Baja California missions, but none offers the detail and original research and meticulous documentation that Vernon's does. The author not only visited every single Baja California mission (physically, and financially, no small feat), but he also went to several visitas, which are not missions proper but visiting chapels established by the missionaries). From the jacket text:

...and the position of each was recorded using a GPS instrument. In addition to photographing each site, oral history was taken from the area's residents. Sketches record the configuration of sites not previously mapped, and in the case of the largest Baja California mission, Comondu, the foundation was traced and old photographs utlized to computer-generate three dimensional architectural drawings...

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

To travel, if only by armchair, from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende, Juchitan, Chiapas, Lake Patzcuaro and Huichol Country with travel writer Isabella Tree--- what a treat! In the grand tradition of British travel writing comes her Sliced Iguana: Travels in Mexico, first published in the U.K. in 2001 and now available in the U.S. in a paperback edition from Tauris Parke with an new introduction. For her guest-blog post here, I've asked her for her five favorite books about Mexico.

Mexico has inspired some of the greatest writers in both the Spanish and English languages. From D.H. Lawrence to Laura Esquivel, from Graham Greene to our own C.M. Mayo-- jumping in amongst them while I was travelling around Mexico researching Sliced Iguana was a daunting but thrilling experience. Here are my desert island favourites:

# 1. Sibyl Bedford's A Visit to Don OtavioA journey taken in the 1950s but rediscovered by Eland Press in the 1980s, this book encapsulates, for me, the essence of good travel writing. Never one to shy away from describing the frustrations and discomforts of travel, Sibyl Bedford is nonetheless quick as a hummingbird to suck the sweetness from every experience. Typically, she confesses she chose Mexico because she wanted "to be in a country with a long nasty history in the past, and as little present history as possible" but it's her idyllic stay with Don Otavio, a bankrupt squire living in a colonial mansion in a forgotten backwater with seventeen servants, that becomes the highlight of her travels. Her hilarious, pithy dialogues are pure genius. Not your average tourist experience but a wonderful insight into Mexico's colonial past and how to travel in style.

# 2. Octavio Paz's Labyrinth of SolitudeBy the master himself, this rich, deep, dark searching into the very psyche of Mexico gets closer, I think, to the heart of 'Mexicanidad' than anything else. This is by no means a comfortable read -- "We are alone", he says, "Solitude, the source of anxiety, begins on the day we are deprived of maternal protection and fall into a strange and hostile world..."-- but Paz's passionate, tortured honesty winds an illuminating path around Mexico's painful and bloody past, shedding light on what it really means to be born a Mexican.

# 3. Malcolm Lowry's Under the VolcanoA cult novel of self-destruction that hooked me long before I was seduced by my first taste of mescal.

# 4. Bernal Diaz's Conquest of New SpainWritten by the last of Cortes' conquistadors fifty years after the event, and therefore to be taken with the necessary pinch of salt, this swashbuckling account of the Spaniards' first steps in the New World and their encounters and battles with the Aztecs and other 'Indians' nevertheless has all the adrenaline-rush of history in the making and reads-- in the masterfully edited Penguin Classics version-- like an Homeric epic.

# 5. Carlos Fuentes' A New Time for MexicoA brilliant collection of essays exploring Mexico's present and its future in a delightfully frank and accessible way. It's a wise and beautifully written collection, of course, as captivating as any of Carlos Fuentes' novels, but these essays are also-- refreshingly-- full of hope. ---Isabella Tree

Monday, March 24, 2008

It's been a while since I've done any translating--- after translating a large part of and editing Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion and the first Tameme chapbook, a short story by Agustin Cadena, I had to put translating aside for a while in order to finish my novel. But I recently finished a translation of a devastatingly good short story by Alvaro Enrigue, one of Mexico's most talented young writers--- about, of all things, the last years of the life of Ishi. Most California school children know the haunting story of Ishi--- one of the saddest of the continent. (If you don't know it, check out this teacher's guide from the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology.) What Alvaro Enrigue made of it in his fiction is surprising indeed. The story--- "On the Death of the Author"--- is not for Tameme, alas; it is to be included in an anthology of Mexican fiction selected by Alvaro Uribe forthcoming--- I'm not sure, but I understand it's very soon. More anon.

Friday, March 21, 2008

This is not a frivolous product, way-out as it might seem. It's not only been psychoacoustically designed by none other than music producer and sound researcher Joshua Leeds, but it's also been clinically tested on 150 subjects by veterinary neurologist Susan Wagner. And it's very beautiful... classical selections played by concert pianist Lisa Spector. Through a Dog's Ear: Music to Calm Your Canine Companion, is like a cup of valium for the furry ones... I tried it on my pug, Picadou, and we got some major zzz's...

The subject of my book--- the construction in the 1920s and early 1930s of America's first major highway project, and its most visible remnant, the Pulaski Skyway crossing the New Jersey Meadowlands--- appealed to me because it was a neglected piece of history, in which new technology (the automobile and its transformation of America) ran headlong into old-style urban machine politics, touching off a vicious labor war that led directly to a sensational murder trial, and indirectly to a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. When I wasn't dabbling in biography and political science to describe labor unions and the long reign of political boss Frank Hague, I was trying to get my brain around bridge design and the developing science of traffic engineering, all while contemplating industrial archaeology and the unlikely aesthetic appeal of a gigantic pile of black steel crossing some of the ugliest real estate on the eastern seaboard.

Since I am termperamentally incapable of doing only one thing at a given time, it was a hugely enjoyable project. In the same spirit, here are five highly recommended sites that sit at the crossroads of history, industry, commerce and art.

#1. Modern RuinsPhotographer Phil Buehler's site is a showcase for his images of industrial archaeology, such as the old World's Fair site in New York and the defunct Greystone facility in northern New Jersey. Among the most striking images are interiors from the derelict Alcoa factory in Edgewater, a New Jersey community huddled along the Hudson River at the foot of the Palisades -- not far from Jersey City.

#2. The Biographer's Craft Just a year old this month, James McGrath Morris' monthly newsletter offers news of upcoming and recently sold biographies, shop talk on writing and research, and links to reference sites (many supplied by readers) that will surprise even the most wonkish of Web surfers. I'm always delighted to see the latest issue pop up in my in-box.

#3. Librarians' Internet IndexHappy surprises and unexpected bits of information are the lifeblood of research, and this is a great place to find them. A frequently updated, constantly churned collection of links to "Websites you can trust," on topics ranging from U.S. history and gardening to international law and film history.

#5. Dark PassageIt was through the beautiful site Detroitblog that I learned about the subculture of urban infiltrators, those freelance archaeologist-adventurers who love nothing better than to explore long abandoned buildings, factories and facilities where the detritus of modern life is still turning into history. I really and truly admire the combination of intellectual curiosity, thrill-seeking and sheer balls-to-the-wall spelunking nerve involved in exploring sealed-off buildings and tunnels that are ignored by the rest of the world.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Ever since a five-day January stay on the shore of Baja California's Laguna San Ignacio to see the hundreds of spyhopping, spouting, and swimming gray whales, (which I wrote about in Miraculous Air), I've had a great affection for whales. I used to think caring about whales was silly; now I think it's silly not to care. They are wondrous creatures, and a last vestige, alas, of a natural world that is fast disappearing. And I'm a ginormous fan of writer-musician, improvising composer and philosopher David Rothenberg's elegantly original Why Birds Sing and so, especially delighted to see that now he's brought out a new CD to accompany a forthcoming book on--- no kidding---playing his clarinet for whales, from belugas in the Russian Arctic, to orcas off Vancouver Island, and humpbacks in the warm lagoon between Maui and Lanai. “David Rothenberg,” says Paul Winter, “is one of the rare musicians who is devoted to exploring the voices of the natural world. I would hope his work might encourage others to follow suit.” But do the whales care? Will they respond to his clarinet? You'll be able to read all about it when his book, The Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound, is published by Basic Books in May. In the meantime, I asked him to supply five links. Dive in:

Monday, March 10, 2008

Mexico's ex-President Ernest Zedillo has an article about the U.S. Presidential race in today's Yale Global On-Line. And another little FYI: Barak Obama's piece on U.S. relations with Mexico for the Dallas Morning News. P.S. Watch this video and get a free torta.

Remedios para cuerpo y alma is big, uber-beautiful coffee table book published in Mexico City this past December (alas, no images available on google)--- I'd translate the title as "Remedies for Body and Soul." It has a prologue by one of Mexico's most-beloved novelists, Laura Esquivel, and photos by one of its finest photographers, Ignacio Urquiza. Remedies are categoried by head; thorax; abdomen; back; other remedies for the body; for the soul; and other remedies. There is a fascinating chapter on the temazcal, a kind of sweat lodge, and best of all, in "Tradicion viva," a profile of each of the healers who contributed remedies. I was especially interested to see that of Carlos J Gomez Nunez, biologist and founder of the Ethnobotanic Garden "La India Bonita" in Acapatzingo, Morelos (see some of my pix here). More anon.

Friday, March 07, 2008

News from Ida Victoria in San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur: a painting workshop March 28, 29 and 30 with award- winning local plein air artist Ezra Katz. For more information, visit www.idavictoriaarts.com

Thursday, March 06, 2008

As many of you know, Tameme recently ceased publication of the Tameme literary journal in order to focus on publishing chapbooks. Our mission is to promote English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English literary translation by publishing new writing from North America— Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. With the chapbooks, we celebrate and disseminate this new writing and translation in an attractive and more affordable format.

I was lucky enough to have met C.M. Mayo at an artist colony and to spend time with her again at another colony years later. I write well at home, being plagued by nothing more than a couple of very small dogs, yet I am a fan of colonies and retreats because of the camaraderie: the chance to talk shop, commiserate, and champion. But residencies are tough to carve out of one’s life, so my primary source of artistic amity has been a writers’ group, with which I have been involved for over a decade. You’d think veterans such as we are would have had enough of workshopping back in our student days, but writing is a lonely pursuit, and, unless one has a fantastic editor, it’s difficult to get thoughtful feedback on one’s work. Not that I always have loved responses I’ve gotten from the Providence Area Writers’ Group! Certainly, I have groused to my husband over a glass of wine about how the group just didn’t get it, just didn’t get me. Time and again, though, the wisdom of the critiques set in within a few days, and I moved from frustration to gratitude.

“We don’t give criticism,” an editor of a literary journal once said. “No one really wants criticism.” My God! I thought. It’s true! Then what am I doing teaching Creative Writing? I shared this anecdote with my PAW Group pal, Ann Harleman, who told me, “No one wants criticism, but everyone wants help.” And this seemed to me a greater truth. Everyone wants help.

That’s what the PAW Group, in its various incarnations, has given me. Wonderful people and wonderful writers— Rand Cooper, Jim English, Ann Hood, Elliot Krieger, Marcia Lieberman, Judy McClain, Nancy Reisman, and Lucy Stevens, to name some—have been members of the group, and I remain grateful for their help as well as for the schmooze and the friendship. After all these years, I also am nearly as pleased by these friends’ successes as I am by my own—and that’s saying a lot for a writer. So I am happy to have the opportunity to share links to websites of the current members of the group. Read their work. If you find a great passage, I’ll be happy to take credit for it...

Adam Braver is the author of Mr. Lincoln’s Wars; Divine Sarah, and Crows Over the Wheatfield. His books have been selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers program, Borders’ Original Voices series, and twice for the Book Sense list. His work has appeared in journals such as Daedalus, Ontario Review, Cimarron Review, West Branch, and Post Road. He teaches at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI, and is a Writer-in-Residence at the NY State Summer Writers Institute.

Ed Hardy grew up in Ithaca, New York and has an MFA from Cornell. He’s the author of two novels: Keeper and Kid and Geyser Life. His short stories have appeared in over twenty magazines, including Ploughshares, GQ, Prairie Schooner, Boulevard, Yankee, and The Quarterly. He has been a newspaper reporter and editor, first for the Burlington Times Union, a weekly north of Boston, and later for the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune. He has taught creative writing at Cornell and Boston College and currently teaches nonfiction writing at Brown. His short fiction has been listed in The Best American Short Stories and he has twice won fiction fellowships from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.

Ann Harleman is the author of the short story collections, Thoreau's Laundry and Happiness, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award; and the novels, The Year She Disappeared, and Bitter Lake. Among her awards are Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, three Rhode Island State Arts Council grants, the Berlin Prize in Literature, and the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where she is on the faculties of Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Hester Kaplan is the author of The Edge of Marriage, a short story collection; and Kinship Theory, a novel. Her awards include an NEA, the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, Writer's Community/YMCA Writer-in-Residence Award, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowship, and work chosen for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 1998 and 1999.

Elizabeth Searle is the author of three books of fiction: Celebrities in Disgrace, a novella; A Four-Sided Bed, a novel nominated for an American Library Association Book Award, and My Body to You, a story collection that won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize. Her most recent work is Tonya & Nancy: The Opera (2006), which has drawn worldwide media attention.

Speechwriting in the real world is not going to be the way it is in the classroom or in the seminar--- not as neat and clean, not as academic and cerebral. There are clients to be gotten, gatekeepers and reviewers to be circumvented and/or mollified, wooden clients to be animated, unreasonable deadlines and expectations to be surmounted. Speechwriters must address audience, message, tone, and the cadence of speaking, rather than the rhythm of the written word. While a very different style of writing, it also can be very lucrative...READ MORE AND REGISTER.

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WELCOME, CURIOUS AMD ADVENTUROUS READER!

I am novelist, essayist and literary translator C.M. Mayo and this is my main blog where you will find a post every Monday. Subjects include books, creative process, cyberflanerie, Far West Texas (the subject of my book in-progress), history, literary travel writing, literary translation, and Mexico, where I have been living for some 30 years. I am the author of several books of fiction and nonfiction; in 2017 I was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. For more about the history and philosophy of this blog, see"Writers' Blogs (And My Blog): Eight Conclusions After 8 Years of Blogging" and this post on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, and this post on its 11th. And for more about my books, articles, podcasts, and writing workshops I invite you to visit www.CMMAYO.com.

Rx

VISIT MY OTHER BLOGS (NO, I DO NOT BLOG ALL DAY THOUGH THAT SURE WOULD BE FUN)

The blog for the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project: Exploring Marfa, Texas & Environs in 24 Podcasts, 2012-2013. All about the podcasts, plus photos, books, videos, and more about Marfa and the Big Bend. This blog and the podcasts are apropos of a work in progress, World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas.

A once-in-a-while-on-Tuesdays blog to share my (copius) research and other information related to my novel set during the 1860s in Mexico-- that tumultuous period known as the Second Empire or French Intervention.

Finally, after numerous attempts, I tackled the behemoth in 2011. This blog, now closed but ever open for perusal, I kept for myself, for fellow W&P travelers past, present and future, and for my writing workshop students so they can see precisely what I mean by "reading as a writer."

C.M. MAYO'S ONLINE LIBRARY OF OUT-OF-COPYRIGHT TEXAS BOOKS

NOTE: MADAM MAYO BLOG PARTICIPATES IN THE AMAZON SERVICES LLC ASSOCIATES PROGRAM. THIS MEANS THAT WHEN YOU CLICK ON A LINK AND BUY A BOOK SOLD ON AMAZON, IF I HAVE HAPPENED TO BOTHER TO PASTE IN THE CODE FOR THE AFFILIATE LINK, I RECEIVE A TINY COMMISSION, AND I APPRECIATE IT. PLEASE BE ASSURED HOWEVER THAN I NEVER RECOMMEND ANY BOOK ON THIS BLOG FOR ANY REASON OTHER THAN THAT I SINCERELY RECOMMEND IT.